1962, this is the time in the movie “Green Book”, it has been 57 years from us, it is the age of many people’s fathers, but also many people’s childhood, for others, it may be the time of the big era, but for the black people of that era, it is in the mud algae, struggling on the horizon.
After watching the movie, I was wondering why there is always so much discrimination in this world, such as racial discrimination, weak country discrimination, poverty discrimination and appearance discrimination, etc., we always reject things that are different from us, always believe too much in the things we are exposed to, we are too lonely in this world, and always want to establish a fortress relationship with people like ourselves, strictly guard against death, and refuse to give an ounce. We are selfish to the world, and we are selfish to ourselves.
The film is a huge social issue, but all of its focus is on people. Simply put, it is a story of people of different races and different backgrounds stepping out of their narrow circles, changing their habits, breaking the walls in front of each other, saying hello to each other, and drinking together.
Tony and Donald are on opposite sides in terms of identity and status. Tony is basically at the bottom of the society, having driven a cleaning car and been a bartender who used violence to solve everything. His current social status limits his vision and cognition, and he rejects the cups used by blacks, cannot accept blacks as his boss, and cannot accept himself as serving blacks. He wouldn’t have taken the job as a black driver if it wasn’t for the expensive compensation he had to pay for hitting someone.
Donald, a black pianist, is highly educated, speaks out of the ordinary, does things methodically, and does what a gentleman should do within the scope of laws and rules. He did not like Tony’s vulgarity, he sought the quality of life and the respect of others.
The first time the two people touched was in Donald’s home, which was decorated like a palace by Donald, with marble columns and huge ivory as symbols of status and power, and he himself dressed up like a king, sitting on his throne and looking down on his “kingdom”, but he could only be king in his “kingdom”, and outside his home, he was nothing.
And white Tony, a lowlife, sits opposite Donald, just enough to hold the kingdom together. Donald’s pretense of pride and equality seemed, at that moment, so painful, even a little sad.
Their journey to the South is the process of breaking this opposite. For Donald, this journey is to approach his inner fear step by step, to challenge his limits step by step, to clearly tell others who he is, and to truly accept his true self, which can be said to be a journey of self-redemption.
Tony’s journey is to break out of his own stereotypes and clearly recognize that he is one of the people who hold up the banner of “discrimination”, is the condoner of this unequal and distorted society.
Donald, who had just embarked on his journey, looked far away from the black people who were farming in the fields, and he felt embarrassed at the olive branch of the black people who invited him to play games. And he entered the white bar alone, but was beaten, the black world he could not melt into, and the white can not live in peace, he awkwardly stood on the line between the two sides difficult to place.
Although Tony is at the bottom of society, he has not experienced discrimination that “birth is wrong” and he does not deny his distress. So at the beginning, he could not understand why Donald remained calm and collected in the face of unfair treatment and humiliation, why Donald lived so rigid and deliberately, he walked freely, and did not understand the hard work of enduring humiliation.
When Tony wanted to get to know Donald and lower his prejudices in his heart, he was shocked by Donald’s brilliance and charm when he played the piano. It is also Donald again and again into embarrassing situations, he slowly felt the world’s most terrible malice, is the convention of the convention of casual ordinary things, as shown in the movie: suits can only be worn by white people, toilets can only be used by white people, restaurants can only be used by white people.
And let Donald gradually be able to rely on Tony, is Tony will him out of the predicament of siege, and he took the initiative to help Tony write a letter, Tony handed him the fried chicken legs, he is the secret of homosexuality by Tony carefully guarded, the first attempt, he had resisted all the rules outside the things.
Perhaps understanding and tolerance can not completely resolve the “racial problem” between two people, after Donald made a phone call to the Secretary of Justice, only to get the small local warden to release himself, he felt that his dignity had been greatly insulted, and his arrogance had been trampled into mud. In the heavy rain he released to Tony the pain of confusion and humiliation:
Yes, I live in a castle, all alone! Rich people pay me to play because they think they’re cultured. But as soon as I walked off the stage, I immediately became a black man in their eyes, because that was their real culture. I endure scorn alone because I am not accepted by my own people because I am different from them too! So if I’m not black enough, if I’m not white enough, if I’m not man enough, then Tony, you tell me, who am I?
After breaking this last fortress, Donald and Tony truly knew each other in their hearts. Donald broke through the framework he had set for himself and really expected the voice of freedom and respect to reach his consciousness, which awakened the deaf. In the final performance, he refused unfair treatment and stood up his chest to express his demand for equal meals with white people. He learned that only by respecting himself can he truly fight injustice.
At Orangebird, the music is no longer an arty foil, or a crowd-pleasing kitsch. Donald in Tony’s encouragement, playing the piano, at this time, he put up a high wall for himself, completely collapsed, he got rid of the barriers of skin color, the shackles of identity, enjoy the most beautiful moments in life, in the self redemption at the same time, also completed the transcendence of self.
When Donald volunteered to come to Tony’s house for Christmas with a gift, he had the courage to let himself go, and his courage earned him a thank you from Tony’s wife for the romantic letter he wrote on Tony’s behalf. The warm embrace at the end of the film, which gave Donald the respect and sincerity he most coveted, was more sensational and enthusiastic than any applause he had received before.
The most important thing to be human is to walk in the world with dignity. We aspire to equality, justice and freedom. But many times what we expect, it is always difficult to achieve. To this day, think of every black man who walked down the street with the green book, the weight of that book, how many people couldn’t breathe. And this green book is the best testimony to that era of inequality.